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EditorialbyEknath Easwaran

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Desire is power which we can harness or let go waste, writes EKNATH EASWARAN

From my university teaching days, I recall an incident which illustrates how desire can drive us to action. I had a colleague in the physics department who was completely devoted to research work. He was never without his coffee, from which I gathered that coffee and research work go together. In fact, he was always in his chair with his journals and his slide rule;he never used to go for walks,and I had seldom seen him very active.

Strong Urge

One night, when I was coming back after a late show a mile from the campus, I saw him walking by the movie theater. I was astonished; I thought he had forgotten how to walk. “What made you throw yourself out of your chair and walk all this way?” I asked him.“You’re breaking the habits of a lifetime.” “Coffee,”he muttered.“I ran out of coffee. I knew I could get some near here even at this hour.” So I asked, “Why didn’t you just stay at your desk and keep working?” “I couldn’t concentrate,” he said. “No matter what I read, all I could think about was coffee. Thermodynamics turned into coffee; Planck’s constant turned into coffee; everything turned into coffee. I just had to get some.” This is the power that is locked up in our desires. If just this little desire for a cup of coffee — not exactly the strongest of our addictions — can have so much power, how much more power must there be in a stronger desire? Of course, I took advantage of the occasion to tell my friend that that is the time to repeat the mantram, because when you have a powerful urge, it acts like a hammer: coffee, coffee, coffee. If you can change coffee, coffee, coffee to Rama, Rama, Rama or Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, that same power will be used to drive the holy name into your consciousness. This is true for all negative emotions. Fear is a hammer; anger is a sledge hammer; and any self-centered desire is a real pile driver. Desire is power which we can harness or let go to waste.We have all been given this power for one purpose: to realise the indivisible unity of life; as the Buddha would put it, to cross from this shore of separateness to the far shore of unity. It is a little like crossing from Berkeley to San Francisco. Some people drive straight to the freeway and over the bridge to the other shore. Other people are like those trucks you see with the words Frequent Stops on the back:they stop for a pizza, they stop to see what is on sale, they stop to see what an old friend is up to. Such people will never make it to the freeway; they won’t reach the other shore before night comes. Now, we all have a certain margin of error for making a few stops.

Don’t Postpone

Experimenting with the toys of life and finding that they don’t fully satisfy us is part of growing up. But when we keep on making stops all our life, it is tragic. Then, even if after many years we get a glimpse of the purpose of life, we may not have the fuel left to make the journey. So don’t waste the precious power of desire to make little trips to the local shopping mall, or short excursions to the restaurant, the bowling alley, the video store.Make a few trips to these spots, and then learn that there is not much doing at these local destinations. Begin conserving your energies to undertake the really big adventure we were all born for. Don’t postpone a day.